Being
a toddler with a healthy sense of curiosity, Harrison loves switches and
knobs--and the A.C. panel, forward to starboard in the saloon, is
coincidentally at his eye level, making for another huge temptation. “He’s
like the Wizard of Oz at his control panel,” says Koeppel, “it’s
worse than Andrew [Giuliani] at the controls.” Davison’s to
the rescue: Not only are there sliding covers over the switches, but now
every system that operates off the panel also requires two switches to
be thrown before it will work. The idea is to present too many things
for Harrison to do, slowing him down enough to prevent trouble if he escapes
his parents' watchful eyes. There's also a cover for the halon
system.

Two
modifications in the cockpit were also designed to slow him down. When
Hatteras launched this boat in 1971, it naturally designed the transom
door to open easily, a potential hazard for Harrison. Davison’s
rerigged it with additional latches that look like they were there from
the beginning. The yard also created a dedicated stowage space for the
swim ladder, which is hung over the side of the cockpit when Sahara is
anchored. Even though Harrison always has his PFD on when he’s aboard,
Koeppel and his wife don’t want to risk that he’ll decide
to climb overboard on his own.

Some
of the other babyproofing measures involved swapping one type of system
for another, like replacing the shower heads with nonscalding units from
a company called FM Mattson. According to Koeppel, these maintain the
temperature even if the toilet is flushed. Another system switch--and
one that actually preceeded Harrison's arrival--involved changing
the original Detroit Diesels that were present during the Andrew Giuliani
incident to DDECs. The DDEC system has electronic lockout buttons, so
when Koeppel engages the lockout while driving at one station, nothing
will happen if Harrison is somehow able to grab ahold of the controls
at the other station.

What
would Koeppel say to Giuliani, now a teenager, if he boarded Sahara
today? He’d probably point out the DDEC controls and thank him. And
maybe one day, so will Harrison.